No. 14 chair

Michael Thonet, 1859. Made by Thonet as the 214 The Viennese café chair is where the modern mass-produced chair begins. Thonet softened beech by steaming it for hours and bent it into curves, so the original needed only six pieces of wood, ten screws and two nuts. It was also designed to ship in parts and be assembled on arrival, and by 1930 around fifty million had been sold. Spot it by the single hoop that runs from the back legs up into the backrest, with a smaller ring bracing the legs below the seat. Thonet still makes it, now numbered 214.